We Don’t Use Expired Teargas, We First Inspect it Before Using it – Police

The Uganda Police has bashed claims that it has been using expired teargas to break up political campaigns of opposition presidential candidates.

Speaking to reporters at the Uganda Media Centre, Edward Ochom, the Director of Operations in the Uganda Police said that before they use teargas, which he said is the most effective non-lethal method of crowd control, they first inspect it.

There has been talk in the media of Police using expired teargas to break up campaign rallies of opposition presidential candidates, Kyagulanyi Robert Ssentamu, the National Unity Platform presidential candidate and Patrick Amuriat Oboi of the Forum for Democratic Change have majorly been at the receiving end of this teargas.

Today marks nine days ever since the political campaigns for presidential, parliamentary and local government elections kicked off last week. Uganda is expected to go to polls on January 14, 2021 starting with presidential and parliamentary elections.

There have been complaints by opposition leaders about the massive use of teargas to disperse campaigns by the opposition presidential candidates during the campaigns.

To these complaints, Okoth Ochola, the IGP Uganda Police said that their Police commanders have been instructed not to allow any candidate to hold rallies or processions that attract more than 200 people.

He reiterated that commanders who fail to take stern action against such individuals will be individually held liable for allowing such a meeting or procession to go ahead.